Configure office hotels

Available with the ArcGIS Indoors Spaces extension.

Office hotels are spaces or areas that workers can reserve for temporary use for a few days or weeks. As an alternative to permanently assigned spaces, this approach allows an organization to efficiently manage space and reduce costs as a result.

Prerequisites

ArcGIS Indoors includes Indoor Space Planner, which allows you to plan the activity of occupants in indoor space, including assigning occupants to individual spaces or to activity-based work areas known as office hotels. You can book office hotels through Indoor Viewer or the Indoors mobile apps, and bookings are managed through a Reservations layer in the ArcGIS Indoors Information Model or through Microsoft 365.

The option to create office hotels as restricted in Space Planner is enabled by default. To book restricted hotels, an occupant must be assigned to the hotel area in Space Planner. If a hotel is configured as unrestricted, no assignment is required and anyone from your ArcGIS organization can book a unit in the hotel area.

Note:

If a hotel is configured as restricted, the portal user signed in to Indoor Viewer or the Indoors mobile apps must have an associated email address that matches the EMAIL field value of their record in the Occupants layer.

Configure with the Reservations layer

Using this workspace reservation method requires that you add a Reservations layer to the web map. Hotel bookings are managed in the Indoors model and can be used to visualize real-time availability of the hotel units and can also be used for space usage analytics.

Add layers

Your organization must have the web map that was prepared and shared for use in Space Planner and the editable Reservations layer. Add the Space Planner web map to your Indoors project before you configure office hotels. Doing so ensures that the feature layer associated with that web map can be added to the Viewer map for visualizing up-to-date information.

Complete the following steps to prepare a map for office hotels:

  1. Open an Indoors project in ArcGIS Pro and activate the map prepared for Indoor Viewer.
  2. Add or update the source for the Occupants layer in the map from the occupants feature layer that is associated with the Space Planner web map.
  3. Add or update the source for the Units layer from the units feature layer that is associated with the same Space Planner web map.
  4. Add or update the source for the Reservations layer.

    This editable layer is used for managing space reservations and visualizing reservations in a map.

    Note:

    You must include the RECURRENCE_ID and RECURRENCE_CONFIG fields in the Reservations layer to make recurring bookings.

    You can configure the Reservations layer as time aware and symbolize the available hotel units so they can be visually identified for booking.

  5. Configure the Floors property for these layers so that they support the floor filter in the app.

    Set the layer's LEVEL_ID field for the Floors property. You can then use the floor filter to visualize real-time occupancy of the rooms per floor for a facility in the floor-aware map.

  6. Add the Areas table from the feature layer that is associated with the same Space Planner web map.
  7. Optionally, add the Area Roles table from the feature layer that is associated with the same Space Planner web map to enable reservation managers.

    Reservation managers can book hotels and manage bookings for other people in office hotel areas for which they are configured as reservation managers.

    The following is required to configure reservation managers:

    If you created the Reservations feature class at ArcGIS Pro 2.9 or earlier, you need to upgrade your indoor geodatabase to include the RESERVED_BY_USERNAME and RESERVED_BY_FULL_NAME fields. These fields are created by the Create Indoors Database tool introduced at ArcGIS Pro 3.0 or the Upgrade Indoors Database tool introduced at ArcGIS Pro 3.2.

  8. Save the project.
  9. Share the web map.

    If you added the layers to an existing web map that is shared to your organization, you can save the web map without having to share it again. This allows you to preserve the web map ID, and apps configured with the existing web map will continue to work.

    Note:

    If you're using an ArcGIS Enterprise portal, ensure that the layers are sourced from the default version. All changes made to the plans in Space Planner are merged to that version.

Enable office hotels in Viewer

Once the map is prepared to support office hotels with the reservations layer, you can enable workspace reservations for office hotels in an app by completing the following steps:

  1. Create a web app for Viewer or configure an existing Viewer app.
  2. Browse to the Workspace Reservation section in the Configure App panel and enable it.

    The app automatically detects the Reservations layer in the web map and sets the Reservation method to Reservations layer. If all the prerequisites are met in the web map, the Office hotels check box is automatically checked. If it is not checked, a list of the items missing from the web map appears when you check the Office hotels check box.

    The app automatically sets the Office Hotels option if all of the prerequisites are met in the web map. If it is not chosen, checking the Office Hotels check box lists the required items that are missing from the web map.

  3. Click Save.

Once you have created office hotels using Space Planner and configured your app with the reservation layer method, a Hotel button appears in the Viewer app and a Book button appears on the info panel of a selected office hotel unit to complete the reservation process.

Configure with Microsoft 365

Using this workspace reservation method requires that your organization define resource mailboxes in Microsoft 365. The Indoors app sends a booking request through the Microsoft Graph API. The following permissions are required:

  • Sign in and read user profile—To confirm whether a user has access to resource mailboxes
  • Read user calendars—To get available times for rooms
  • Full access to user calendars—To create an event for the new bookings
  • Read user mailbox settings—To get mailbox settings such as time zone and locale

Depending on how your organization has set policies in Microsoft Azure, you may require administrator consent for the requested permissions before the organization starts using Indoors to book rooms.

Add layers

Your organization must have the web map that was prepared and shared for use in Space Planner. Prepare and share the Space Planner web map before you configure office hotels so that the feature layer associated with that web map can be added to the mobile map to enable visualization of up-to-date information.

Complete the following steps to prepare a map for office hotels:

  1. Open an Indoors project in ArcGIS Pro and activate the map prepared for Viewer.
  2. Add or update the source for the Occupants layer in the map from the occupants feature layer that is associated with the Space Planner web map.
  3. Add or update the source for the Units layer from the units feature layer that is associated with the same Space Planner web map.
  4. Configure the Floors property for these layers so that they support the floor filter in the app.

    Set the layer's LEVEL_ID field for the Floors property. You can then use the floor filter to visualize real-time occupancy of the rooms per floor for a facility in the floor-aware map.

  5. Add the Areas table from the feature layer that is associated with the same Space Planner web map.
  6. Save the project.
  7. Share the web map.

    If you added the layers to an existing web map that is shared to your organization, you can save the web map without having to share it again. This allows you to preserve the web map ID, and apps configured with the existing web map will continue to work.

    Note:

    If you're using an ArcGIS Enterprise portal, ensure that the layers are sourced from the default version. All changes made to the plans in Space Planner are merged to that version.

Add email IDs

Your organization must have resource mailboxes in Microsoft 365 for each space that can be reserved so a unique email address is associated with that space. Resource mailboxes can be room mailboxes or workspaces.

Note:

Ensure that the scheduling options, in particular the maximum duration, are set based on the requirements of your organization. If a resource mailbox is a workspace and has a capacity defined, you can book the space multiple times until the capacity is reached.

Complete the following steps to associate units with email IDs:

  1. Right-click the Units layer and click Attribute Table.
    Tip:

    You can filter the records to show only the rows with a hotel value as the ASSIGNMENT_TYPE using the following: ASSIGNMENT_TYPE = "Hotel".

  2. Update the SCHEDULE_EMAIL field with the unique email IDs for each hotel unit.
  3. Click the Edit tab.
  4. In the Manage Edits group, click Save.
    Note:

    Ensure that the USE_TYPE column has appropriate values for each hotel unit. These values are presented as options when booking workspaces.

  5. Save the project.

Enable office hotels in Viewer

Once units are configured for office hotels, you can enable office hotels in a Viewer app by completing the following steps:

  1. Share the web map.
  2. Create a web app for Indoor Viewer or configure an existing Viewer app.
  3. Browse to the Workspace Reservation section in the Configure App panel and enable it.
  4. Choose Microsoft 365 for the Reservation method.
  5. Register the web app as a single-page app with Microsoft Azure.
    Note:

    Keep the following in mind when registering a web app with Microsoft Azure:

    • This is different than configuring office hotels with mobile apps. You can use a pre-existing organizational account with administrative privileges or create one to register the Viewer app URL.
    • Register the Viewer app URL as the Redirect URI. The Enterprise app URL has the following structure: https://<yourportal.domain.com>/portal/apps/indoors/index.html
    • Ensure that implicit flow is enabled and both ID tokens and Access tokens are configured.
  6. Specify your client ID in the Microsoft Azure Portal Application (client) ID text box.
  7. If the app is a single-tenant Microsoft Office app, check the My application is single-tenant check box and specify the tenant ID in the Microsoft Azure Portal Tenant ID text box.

Once the app is created with office hotels enabled, a Hotel button appears in the Viewer app for maps that have office hotels configured. The Book button appears on the info panel of a selected office hotel unit and can be used to complete the booking process.

Note:
  • You must be signed in to your Microsoft 365 account in the Viewer app to book office hotels.
  • Ensure that your browser allows pop-ups from your host site before opening and signing in to the Viewer app.

Book an office hotel

A Hotel button appears on the quick access menu for maps that have office hotels configured. The hotel view displays a list of available office hotels based on location and duration. You can filter the list based on location, site, building, floor, and duration. You can book and manage daily or weekly recurring office hotel bookings. If you have an equipment filter configured, you can also filter the listed office hotels by the equipment they have available.

When a unit associated to an office hotel is selected on the map, a Book button appears on the info card. Tap the button to display a schedule of existing bookings for that room. To book the office hotel, tap an available time slot to prepopulate the start and end times or use the time fields to set the time you want.

If office hotels are configured using the Reservations layer, users must have a role of Data Editor or higher in your ArcGIS organization in Enterprise to book a hotel.

Note:

Booking requests can be declined if they conflict with any scheduling limits specified in Space Planner.

If office hotels are configured using Microsoft 365, you must sign in to your Microsoft 365 account in the Viewer app to book office hotels.

Note:

If you're using Firefox or Safari to open the Viewer app, ensure that your browser allows pop-ups from your host site before signing in.

Book an office hotel for someone else (Reservations layer)

You can configure reservation managers in Space Planner who can book and manage office hotel bookings and recurring bookings for other people if you configured workspace reservations using the Reservations layer. If a user is configured as a reservation manager for a hotel, an option appears in the Hotel panel to book a hotel unit for someone else. If the hotel is configured as restricted, reservation managers can only book the hotel for people who are assigned to it.

If feature editing for the Reservations layer is set to Editors can only edit their own features, when reservations are made by a reservation manager, the options to check in, check out, or cancel a reservation are only available to the reservation manager.

View an office hotel booking

If your map is configured for office hotels using the Reservations layer, you can view your booked rooms on the Booked tab in the Hotel panel. You can select your booking to open the info card and perform various actions. Actions include adding a reminder to your preferred calendar app on the device, editing, or canceling the booking. Reservation managers have two tabs on the Booked tab. The For you button lists your hotel reservations and the For others button lists rooms booked for other occupants. As a reservation manager, you can view, edit, or cancel office hotel bookings for yourself and for others.

When you search for an occupant, the app displays their seating assignment, home office assignment, and any current or upcoming hotel reservations so that you can locate them. You can review the details of the hotel unit they have reserved, get directions, and route to it. You can also access other assignments for an occupant using the Locations button on the info panel.

If your map was configured for office hotels using Microsoft 365, the Indoors app sends a request using the Microsoft account that the user has signed in to Indoors with. Users receive an automated email specifying whether the request was accepted or declined, and an event is added to their calendar if accepted. You can also remove the booking from your Outlook calendar from the Indoors app. This experience is similar to using Microsoft apps such as Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Teams when reserving rooms. You can also review, edit, and cancel the acceptance status of office hotel bookings on the Booked tab.